Nature Walks: Time To Spot The Wildlife

If you go down to the steps today, you're in for a big surprise.....Around the corner from our house lies a short flight of steps which leads us down to the local canal walk and to the children it's like stepping into a magical world. We step on to the path and there's two choices, shall we travel to the left or the right of the path, as both directions promise different adventures. Let's initially turn to the left and picture the following scene: a long winding path following the canal which is a beautiful stretch of water, home to a number of ducks. The sides are adorned with an abundance of blackberry bushes, the black fruit gleaming in the sun tempting us for an impromptu snack. The girls can recognise them now , but they always check with us first, it's our first year of foraging with them. We discovered two bushes of what looked like black currants today, one looked unsafe with green pus oozing out of the berry when it was squeezed, and one had familiar red j...